arts
T ruman
By LYNN ELBER
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Truman
Capote, who was acclaimed for mix
ing fact with fiction in his stark
book, “In Cold Blood,” and fre
quently splashed across the gossip
columns with his flamboyant life
style, was found dead Saturday in a
Bel-Air mansion. He was 59.
Police Cmdr. 'William Booth said
Capote was found dead in his sleep
around noon at the home of Joanne
Carson, who is divorced from “To
night Show” host Johnny Carson.
Booth said there was no evidence of
foul play, but the coroner’s depart
ment would investigate the death.
Police said Capote had been stay
ing at the Mrs. Carson’s home since
Thursday, and she found his body
and called paramedics. Capote had
retired to take a nap, saying he was
tired.
“They had made previous plans to
go swimming this afternoon,” said
Lt. Ed Henderson. “She went to
wake him up. She noticed his color
wasn’t good, and his forehead was a
little cool. She attempted to find a
pulse and couldn’t.”
Capote, who was one of a number
of houseguests, was described as
being in good spirits on Friday
night. “They were making plans to
celebrate his 60th birthday next
month,” Henderson said.
He said Capote had prescription
drugs with him, but police did not
know what they were. An autopsy
will be conducted Sunday, said
county coroner spokesman Bill
Gold.
The 5-foot-3 author, who was
known for his flamboyant wardrobe
and Southern accented, high
pitched lisp, threw elaborate parties
that drew celebrities from Holly
wood, high society and politics.
Capote once said he had problems
with drinking and taking medica
tion.
Last year the University Resident Theatre Company featured such exciting plays as “Skin of Our Teeth.” This year
promises to be just as entertaining. The URTC will present plays like “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Fifth of July.”
The season opens Oct. 5, so get your tickets ahead of time and don’t miss out on the fine entertainment provided by
this company.
Abe Lastfogel, famous talent agent, dies
By LEE SIEGEL
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Abe Lastfogel, the
“super” talent agent whose clients ranged from
Marilyn Monroe to Elvis Presley and who built
the William Morris Agency into a powerful
Hollywood talent broker, has died of cardiac
arrest. He was 86.
‘Abe Lastfogel was one of
the great leaders in the
vaudeville business, the
nightclub business and the
radio business, then in the
motion picture and television
business.’
Morris Stoller, co-chairman of
the William Morris Talent Agency
“He was a super agent. He was really Mr.
Show Business,” William Morris co-chairman
Morris Stoller said Sunday.
"He built the largest theatrical agency in the
world. He built it up to its heights,” Stoller
added.
Capote,
“I put them together like some
sort of cocktail,” he said in a July
1978 television interview in New
York City, but the host cut the
segment short when Capote began
rambling incoherently.
In August 1983, Capote pleaded
guilty to a charge of drunken driv
ing on New York’s Long Island. He
was rebuked by the judge for ap
pearing in court in Bermuda shorts.
Capote was hospitalized in April
1983 in Montgomery, Ala., after
tests showed he had “a toxic level”
of dilantin and phenobarbitol in his
system. Doctors said he had a “bad
reaction” to the drugs, which are
used to control epileptic seizures.
In August 1981, he had collapsed
from a convulsive seizure in the
lobby of his Manhattan apartment.
Capote was born in New Orleans
on Sept. 30, 1924, was schooled in
New York and Greenwich, Conn.,
and showed an interest in writing
from his early years.
In 1946, he won his first of three 0.
Henry Memorial awards for short
stories.
His “Other Voices, Other
Rooms,” appeared in 1948, followed
by about a dozen other books, in
cluding “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in
1958, which was made into a movie
starring Audrey Hepburn.
In 1965, he wrote his hugely suc
cessful book, “In Cold Blood,” an
account of the ruthless slaying of
four members of the Herbert Clutter
family near Garden City, Kan. A
film based on the book appeared in
1967.
Capote hailed “In Cold Blood” as
the first “non-fiction novel,” which
applied the techniques of fiction to
the facts of the case to make it seem
more truthful.
“I had this theory about report
age,” Capote said of the book. “I’ve
always felt that if you brought the
art of the novelist together with the
technique of journalism fiction
with the added knowledge that it
Lastfogel’s clients had included Presley, Miss
Monroe, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, George
Burns, Gracie Allen, director Fred Zinneman,
Danny Thomas, Dick Powell, David Niven, Fan
ny Brice, Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn,
Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth,
Walter Matthau, A 1 Jolson, Mae West, Edward
G. Robinson, James Cagney and Will Rogers,
Stoller said.
Lastfogel, who lived in Beverly Hills, died
Saturday night of cardiac arrest at Cedars Sinai
Medical Center, said Lee Solters, head of the
Solters-Roskin-Friedman public relations firm.
He had been admitted to the hospital Aug. 10
for removal of his gall bladder, but later devel
oped complications, including a mild heart at
tack, Solters said.
Lastfogel was chairman emeritus of the Wil
liam Morris Agency, which he joined in 1912
while he was a teen-ager. He took over the
company in 1932 after the death of the firm’s
founder, William Morris.
"Abe Lastfogel was one of the great leaders in
the vaudeville business, the nightclub business
and the radio business, then in the motion picture
and television business,” Stoller said.
“Abe was truly legendary.” Solters said. “He
really built up the William Morris Agency. He
was only a kid and built it up into one the largest
and most powerful.”
Lastfogel, born on May 17,1898, left school and
renowned author, dies at age 59
was true it would have the most
depth and impact.”
The work originally appeared in
The New Yorker, boosting sales of
the magazine.
After the book' was published,
Capote became the toast of New
York, throwing an elaborate
masked ball at the Plaza hotel.
Author William Styron said Satur
day of “In Cold Blood:” “That was
the first major attempt and a suc
cessful one, I think, to merge fact
and fiction in. an artistic way, in a
convincing way. And for that reason
I think it was very important, al
most a revolutionary work, and one
that’s going to continue to be read
for a long time.”
Another writer, George Plimpton,
called Capote’s death “a terrible
loss to American letters. He’s abso
lutely one of the most important
writers of our times. A great story
teller, remarkable reporter when he
was at his prime, and he really had
all the gifts to a striking degree.”
Capote also collaborated on
screenplays, working with John
Huston on the 1954 film, “Beat the
Devil,” starring Humphrey Bogart,
and with William Archibald for the
1961 movie, “The Innocents,” based
on Henry James’ “The Turn of the
Screw.”
Capote won an Emmy Award for
his 1967 television adaptation of his
work, “A Christmas Memory.”
He made his only screen appear
ance as the eccentric millionaire,
Two Two Twain, in Neil Simon’s
1976 comedy, “Murder by Death.”
In his 1980 book, “Music For Cha
meleons,” Capote reviewed his own
career and told of the difficulties of
his craft.
He said he re-read everything he
had ever written, leading him to
conclude that for all he had learned
during his career, he had never
written with the full powers at his
command, never combined “within
a single form” all he knew “about
every other form of writing.”
In one of the pieces in “Music For
Chameleons,” he confessed the ag
ony he felt as a child over his secret
desire “to be a girl.”
At the time of his death, he was
working on his long-promised novel
“Answered Prayers.”
Capote was reared mostly by
aunts and grandmothers in Ala
bama, New York and New England,
after his mother who was married
at the age of 15 was divorced. Ca
pote had been competely on his own
since he was 17, when he landed a
job sorting cartoons at The New
Yorker. At 24, he skyrocketed out of
nowhere with “Other Voices, Other
Rooms.”
He once said, “It’s just impossible
for me to write a sentence. I have to
think about it such a long time. The
thing that’s most important is style;
not what I’m saying but how I’m
saying it; manner over matter.”
According to a 1983 biography by
an aunt who helped raise Capote,
Marie Rudisill, his mother contin
ually berated him for effeminacy
when he was a boy. She said Ca
pote’s parents showed little sign of
love for him.
In 1983, Capote put his acerbic wit
to work by writing a gossip column
for Esquire magazine called “Ob
servations.” In one installment, he
took readers on a tour of Greta
Garbo’s apartment (“The walls
burn with important but rakishly,
wrongly hung paintings”), and
wrote of his dislike for Meryl
Streep’s facial features: “Her nose
... reminds you of an anteater.”
Capote himself was described by
the clothing designer Halston as
“the perfect client.”
Author Gore Vidal, who was in
volved in a long and sometimes
lighthearted feud with Capote in the
mid-19705, once spoke of Capote’s
“bright wit and sweet charm.”
In 1982, several manuscripts Ca
pote had written as a child were sold
University Resident Theatre Company to
feature an exciting array of entertainment
By CHRISTINE INGEMAR ANDERSON
Collegian Staff Writer
For the 1984-85 season, the Pennsylvania State Uni
versity Resident Theatre Company offers you five
memorable performances. It promises excitement in
its portrayal of drama, comedy, romance and adven
ture.
The entertainment begins with Lanford Wilson’s
“Fifth of July” at the Pavilion October 5,6, 9 through
13 and 16 through 20. Focusing on unrealized dreams of
the 19605, it is a look backward at four previously
interdependent people whose celebrations and fire
works have since ended. Put these people on a
ramshackle farm in Missouri on Independence Day in
1977, and there is a clash of remembrances, recrimina
tions, interests and expectations.
Next, William Shakespreare’s brilliant farce, “Much
Ado About Nothing,” which runs November 9,10 and 13.
through 17 at the Playhouse, is a romantic yet comical
view of the battle of the sexes. You’ll meet Beatrice, a
cultured, witty, yet egocentric woman of the Renais
sance, who supposedly scorns the love of men. Her
masculine antagonist, Benedick, consecrates to the
holy, surly and lonely vows of bachelorhood. They
went to work in 1912, taking a $6-a-week job with
William Morris in New York rather than an
employment offer from a local tailor.
“By the age of 20, he already was a top agent,”
Stoller said. “. . . He came out here in 1933 and
was responsible for bringing a lot of the stars in
New York into the motion picture industry. He
dealt with all the top studio owners.”
Solters and Stoller said that as the studio
contract system died, Lastfogel made some of
.the pioneering efforts that'gave stars a share of
the ownership in and profits from their own
films.
During World War 11, he ran the USO shows for
soldiers and in 1945 President Harry Truman
awarded him the Medal of Freedom and a
presidential certificate of merit.
Stoller said Lastfogel was semi-retired after a
stroke in 1969, but that until his recent iljness “he
came to the office every day. He went to func
tions. He was around.”
Lastfogel’s sole survivor is a sister-in-law,
Solters said. His wife Frances, whom he married
in 1927, died in 1977.
Stoller said funeral services will be held Tues
day at the Hillside Memorial Cemetery in Los
Angeles.
William'Morris Agency, with twin headquar
ters in New York and Los Angeles and 550
employees worldwide, is chaired by Stoller and
Sam Weisbord. Lee Stevens is president.
theater preview
from the estate of one of his teach
ers from the Trinity School in New
York City.
One of the stories, “How I Lost My
Belief in Santa Claus,” was written
by Capote when he was 11 years old.
“The noise became louder. Then I
peeked around the corridor. There
was my daddy putting the gifts
under the Christmas tree,” read the
manuscript, containing several
dropped words. “Now I knew there
was no Santa Claus. The next morn
ing I came down stairs as usual at
first I said nothing, but later just for
spite, I said, Daddy, look at all those
presents that Santa Claus gave me.
Now what are you going to give me.
You should have the look on his
face.”
The manuscript, plus a five-chap
ter novellette called “Christmas Va
cation” and 10 other stories and
verses, were saved by his English
teacher, John E. Langford.
taunt and mock each other while invariably they are
being drawn closer together by the alchemy of love.
In the Playhouse on February 15, 16 and 19 through
23, “Children of a Lesser God,” by Mark Medoff,
captures the story of a deaf woman and her husband, a
hearing therapist. You’ll enter the world of the deaf
and understand the artistic communication and the
frustration of those who cannot hear. The play tends to
make the audience realize that deafness isn’t a silence
in a wasteland of deprivation, but a condition of being
an “other”— a state that has its sufficient rewards.
“The Beaux Strategem,” by George Farquhar, plays
March 22,23,26 through 30 and April 2 through 6 in the
Pavillion. It is an involving comedy and fanciful tale of
two young men scheming to improve their fortunes by
marrying heiresses. As they arrive at a country inn,
they pose as master and servant until they can ac
complish their purpose.
Lastly, A “History of the American Film,” which
appears at the Playhouse April 19,20 and 25 through 27,
is a zany comedy by Christopher Durang with music by
Mel Marvin. This play presents a multi-leveled satire
on films— their effects on first audiences and on those
who later view them on television.
The URTC box office is located in the Playhouse
Theatre and is open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m.
to 6 p.m., and until 9 p.m. during the night of the
performance. Tickets for the Pavillion performances
are also available from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. during
performance evenings at the Pavillion box office.
Special discounts are available.
Abe Lastfogel was agent to many respected personalities, such as Elvis
Presley and Mae West. Other clients included David Niven, Frank Sinatra,
Marilyn Monroe and George Burns. Lastfogel joined the William Morris
Agency as a teen-ager in 1912, making $6 dollars a week, and moved up
through the ranks to eventually head the corporation by 1932 after the
death of the founder.
The Daily Collegian '
Monday, Aug. 27, 1984
A Florida real estate firm won a
$13,000 lawsuit against Capote in
1981 after accusing him of reneging
on a contract to buy a home on
fashionable Marco Island off the
southwest Florida coast. Capote lost
the suit by default when a judge
ruled that the author failed to an
swer the real estate firm’s inquiries.
NEW YORK (AP) - Here is a
partial list of books by Truman
Capote:
“Other Voices, Other Rooms”
(1948)
“Tree of Night” (1949)
“Observations” (1949)
“Local Color” (1950)
“The Grass Harp” (19/53)
“The Muses are Heard” (1956)
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958)
“Selected Writings” (1963)
“In Cold Blood” (1965)
“A Christmas Memory” (1966)
“House of Flowers” (1968)
“Thanksgiving Visitor” (1969)
Truman Capote
'Red Dawn' is a problematic, but gripping tale
Unfortunately, things never quite
get back to normal in fictional Calu
met, Colo. As three of the boys sneak
Imagine you are in a classroom in a downtown for news, they learn that
serene little town.in Colorado, nestled the Communists have completely tak
peacefully below the Rocky Moun- en over the town: the mayor is noth
tains and at the edge of the Great ing more than a puppet, mimicking
Plains. It seems to be a laid back their wishes; no one is allowed to talk
town. But one day, as your school about the past; and those who were
teacher gazes out his classroom win- feared to be connected with under
dow, he sees hundreds of black par- ground organizations are placed in
achutes trickle down to the ground, concentration camps.
As the prof steps outside to confront Swayze and .his brother find their
the intruders, he is immediately father in one of these large camps
blown away by one of their machine surrounded by barbed wire, where a
guns. droning voice over the loudspeaker
By DIANE D. DiPIERO
Collegian Arts Writer
One thing’s for sure: “Red Dawn” repeatedly announces that the United
is not a misleading film. It sets an States is evil and corrupt. The scene
ominous tone from the very begin- between father and his sons is very
ning, when the school teacher is real and emotion-packed,
killed. As teenagers are being mur- While the boys are downtown, they
dered left-and-right outside that once- visit an old friend, who entrusts in
peaceful school, eight boys manage to their care two of his nieces, who were
escape; they get provisions and head attacked by lecherous foreign sol
to the mountains for safety. diers. Together, these young survi-
The boys learn that the Cubans vors decide to fight the enemy
succeeded in a surprise attack themselves. So, with what ammuni
against the United States, and now tion they’ve acquired, they emerge as
occupy the territory that was once the “Wolverines,” making clandes
their happy home town. Most of the tine trips to town, while bombing,
boys are scared, but the eldest and shooting and outsmarting the enemy,
leader of the pack, played by Patrick Of course, the communists have no
Swayze (“The Outsiders,”‘Grand- idea where these attacks are coming
view, U.S.A.”), refuses to let their from. Will they ever find the Wolver
emotions get in the way. After some ines? We 11...
persuading, the boys decide to stay in “Red Dawn” is one of the fastest
the mountains until it is safe to de- paced, most gripping films of the
scend. year. Director John Milius (“Mag-
First
impressions
are lasting
impressions.
Before the interviewers see you, they see your resume
If your resume holds their attention just a few minutes longer
than the others, if it is visually most appealing on a crowded
desk, then you’ve won the first round.
A resume produced by Collegian Production stands up to the
competition to give you the visual edge you’ll need to make a
good impression.
Come browse through our resume portfolio. We have several
formats and paper samples to choose from. We can also provide
matching stationery for letterheads, just so prospective
employers will know you’ve given your appearance some extra
consideration.
CD
collegian |production
Resum6 Service
Room 126 Carnegie Building
Monday thru Friday
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by appointment,
863-3215
num Force,” “Apocalypse Now”>
has created such highly realistic
scenes, that you cannot help but
imagine the same horrible thing hap
pening to yourself.
The film is not without its prob
lems, though. The most perplexing
question: how did those kids get all
that ammunition? When they left on
the day of the attack, they had noth
ing more than bows and arrows.
Suddenly they had progressed to the
ranks of machine guns and hand
granades. We can assume that they
stole them from some foreign sol
diers, but the movie never gives us
enough evidence to convince us.
As far as acting goes, no Academy
Awards will be won by this cast.
However, an honorable mention goes
to Ben Johnson, the Cuban leader,
whose zest for war and later sympa
thy for the his captives is both con
vincing and touching. The scenes are
so intense, though, that you automat
ically feel something for these guys.
Especially notable is a scene where
Swayze must decide whether or not to
kill one of the other boys who has led
the enemy onto their trail.
The best thing about “Red Dawn”
is that it keeps your attention
throughout the whole movie. You’re
constantly being pulled into another
battle scene, gripping life-and-death
situation or small touch of humor. If
action and life-like danger is what
you’re after, this movie’s got both.
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The Daily Collegian Monday, Aug. 27, 1984—23
URTCI9B4-85 Season
Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
Children of a Lesser God
By Mark Medoff
The Beaux Stratagem
By George Farquhar
A History of The American Film
Book and Lyrics by Christopher Durang
Music by Mel Marvin
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-Customer's Copy
A/AS i& L
Fifth of July
By Lanford Wilson